ABSTRACT

This paper describes the development of shear equipment to test the creep of discontinuities in hard rock. The shear box was constructed from an existing soil shear box which allows for easy and cost-effective replication of the equipment. As the creep rate of some discontinuities in hard rock is small, the design included a novel arrangement of six displacement transducers that allowed for measurements directly on the rock surface. This prevented the data from being obscured by creep components of the epoxy used to mount the samples. Finally, the developed data acquisition unit and testing methodology are discussed and typical creep results are illustrated.